Steve Kinser - Eldora spotlight

30 Years of Winning at Eldora Speedway for Steve Kinser
In 1978, a young driver went Eldora Speedway, with just one start at the
storied half-mile under his belt, and began to promptly rewrite the
record books each time he visited the famed...

30 Years of Winning at Eldora Speedway for Steve Kinser

In 1978, a young driver went Eldora Speedway, with just one start at the
storied half-mile under his belt, and began to promptly rewrite the
record books each time he visited the famed Ohio track. That driver was
Steve Kinser and 30 years later, he is still winning at Eldora and
rewriting the history books each time he takes to the track.

Kinser, the 20-time Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series
champion, won his first race at Eldora in the series inaugural 1978
season on May 21. Ironically it was also his first A-Feature win with the
series. He would follow that up with another win at the track on
September 3 of 1978, again with the series. This began a streak of 11
consecutive seasons in which he would be victorious at Eldora Speedway.
In his first 26 starts at the track, Kinser earned a Top-10 finish in
each and every one of them with most of those being Top-Five
performances, including a string of four consecutive wins in both 1979
and 1980.

"I remember running there in 1978 in the Outlaws first season and
having a lot of success there," said Kinser, who pilots the Q Oil
Maxim. "We've definitely had a lot of success there over the
year and I always have enjoyed racing there."

During his career, Kinser has won in 25 different seasons at the track,
which is now owned by fellow Indiana native and two-time NASCAR champion
Tony Stewart. Most recently, Kinser was victorious last year in the
Knight Before the Kings Royal, leading all 30 laps in a dominating
performance. Prior to the 2007 season, the track was resurfaced and also
reconfigured, giving drivers an added challenge, to a track that was
already one of the most demanding on the entire World of Outlaws circuit.

"It's a race track that you can race on when it gets kind of
slick, and get up next to the wall," Kinser explained.
"It's a track that you can do some racing on and some passing
on. It's always a fun place to go race at. The track has made some
changes over the years, but it's still Eldora and it's still
a great place to race at."

Kinser has had unprecedented success at Eldora Speedway over the last 30
years, winning nearly one-third of all the A-Feature events he has
competed in at the track. Along with 33 A-Feature wins with the Advance
Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, he also has visited the
winner's circle at Eldora with the All Star Circuit of Champions,
the United States Auto Club (in both non-wing sprint cars and Silver
Crown cars) and in a number of unsanctioned events. He has six wins in
the $50,000 Kings Royal to lead all drivers, along with two victories in
the $100,000 Historic Big One, as well as triumphs in the Eldora
Nationals a number of times, in addition to wins during Ohio Speedweek
and in the Four Crown Nationals.

"It's always been one of my favorite places to go,"
noted the native of Bloomington, Indiana. "Probably one of the
reasons is that it's not too far from home. The race track itself
has a lot to do with it, as well as all of the history behind it. There
have been a lot of great race drivers, non-wing drivers, and stock car
drivers that have all run there. They have had a lot of good races there
over the years."

With the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series
celebrating its 30th Anniversary this season, Kinser recalled the year
that it all got started and the uncertainty that everyone involved faced,
beginning at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas. He fondly
remembers running a number of races that season at Devil's Bowl and
Eldora, and picking up a number of wins along the way.

"We didn't really know what we were wading into,"
Kinser explained. "A guy by the name of Ted Johnson came up and
wanted a small entry fee to start the thing and said he would keep point
standings and pay $10,000 at the end of the year. We really didn't
know if it would be anything or not. We all gave him our 20 or 40 bucks
or whatever it was and signed up and took off from there and we ran the
whole year."

Kinser would go on to win a series best 11 A-Feature events that year and
would pick up the inaugural series title over Rick Ferkel by 54 points.
Since then, Kinser has amassed an astonishing track record including 20
World of Outlaws titles and 543 A-Feature wins, to go along with many
preliminary feature wins. He has won races from coast-coast, as well as
in Australia, Canada and even Mexico. He was inducted into the National
Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa in 2005.

Looking back at the sport over the last 30 years, Kinser points to a
couple of the areas that have seen the greatest changes. One thing that
has not changed over the years is the level of competition with the World
of Outlaws which again this season will be second-to-none, as there are
currently 20 drivers following the series full-time.

"It has changed quite a bit," Kinser said of sprint car
racing over the last three decades. "The biggest part of it is the
development and the parts keep getting better and better, especially the
motor parts. Everything just keeps getting better and the cars keep
getting faster."

In his career, Kinser has 57 total wins at Eldora Speedway and will have
six opportunities to add to that total this season, as the World of
Outlaws will compete four separate times at the track in a total of six
races, beginning this weekend with two full nights of action.

The winningest sprint car driver in history has competed well over 170
times on the legendary half-mile, claiming victories in nearly a third of
those starts. Last season at the track, in addition to winning the Knight
Before the Kings Royal, Kinser had four Top-10 finishes in five starts.
He has nearly 150 Top-10 finishes at Eldora in his career.

"I think a lot of it is the number of laps that we have run
there," he noted of his success at the track. "In 1978 we ran
a lot of races there with the World of Outlaws. Between there and
Devil's Bowl (Speedway in Texas) we ran a lot of races. We probably
ran each of them five or six times, with a lot of other races in between.
I think the amount of laps (at Eldora) helped a lot, as well as watching
races there before I started running there. That has had a lot to do with
it."

On Friday, April 11 at Eldora Speedway tickets for those 16-over will be
$25, with tickets for those ages 12-15 just $12, with children 7-11 only
$6 and kids 6-under will be admitted free of charge.

On Saturday, April 12 at Eldora Speedway tickets for those 16-over will
be $25, with tickets for those ages 12-15 just $12, with children 7-11
only $6 and kids 6-under will be admitted free of charge.